University of Michigan's governing board agreed to rename its football coach position after a donor, but one regent cautioned against the "commercialization" of the school's athletic department.

"I get a little worried about the slippery slope," said regent Denise Ilitch, who has served on the board since 2008 and whose family owns the Detroit Red Wings and Detroit Tigers.

During a Thursday meeting, the Board of Regents unanimously approved renaming Brady Hoke's head football coach position the "J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Head Football Coach."

The move comes after the Harris family made a $10 million donation to the university for the "naming and endowment of the head football coach position," according to a regents' memo.

Although she expressed caution, Ilitch voted in favor of renaming the coaching position.

"I only want to be the voice of caution on my concern of the commercialization of Michigan athletics," she said, also thanking the Harris family for the donation.

Michigan's athletic department is among the most highly functioning college athletic programs in the nation. With a budget of $137.5 million this year — among the top three athletic department budgets in the nation, according to USA Today — the program is expecting a $9 million surplus.

The board's decision to rename the football coach position comes months after it agreed to rename the athletic campus after New York real estate tycoon Stephen M. Ross, who donated $100 million toward the program in 2013.

Denise Ilitch has served on Michigan's Board of Regents since 2006.File photo

Meanwhile, U-M's chief development officer Jerry May says naming a coaching position after a donor is in step with the existing practices of naming professorships and deanships after donors who fund academic endowments.

The Harris family already has made various donations to Michigan and its athletic department over the years. The football program's locker room is named in their honor.

"It will help continue to stabilize the athletic program," May said of the donation, which created the first-ever endowed coach position at the Michigan.

Regent Andrea Newman praised the donation, saying she spoke with the donor earlier this week and "he was just tickled that he was in this stage in life to be able to do something like this."

Naming a coaching position after a donor isn't uncommon in today's world of college athletics. Stanford, for example, has official endowments for both its head football coach and offensive coordinator positions.